Hello Crenda and the gang, I am thinking of making some of these myself, I'm pretty sure these stumps will last yearsssss... The guy told me he's had some over 10 years and no sign of wearing out, I think we can say they are tough enough for the job lol ð I think you could leave it in the ground & drill holes coning out of the side and it would be around for a long time. Sugi, the prices were not that bad as tou can see some price tags on some of them including the plant was like $30. - $40. U.S DOLLARS. Wantonamara, definitely better than the landfills and they said a lot of character. Greg

I'll update my experience with the seedlings grown from the horse chestnut tree in downtown Edmonton. First the results were somewhat favorable, though that's now turned into failure. They had been grown on for several years and set out as 3 ft specimens, most had not made their first winter and died right back to the ground. About one in five survived with only the top buds dying and the plant then being able to recover and do pretty good in that season, though these have also all now perished. I did have one that was seemingly superior in hardiness and having much more attractive foliage than the parent tree. It was about 4 ft tall and went through two winters without any tipkill whatsoever, though last winter it was struck right back down to the ground, maybe the nasty October had done it in? I'll give it time to see if it recovers. Even the established horse chestnut at Wellington Garden Center (north Edmonton) had a fair amount of dieback after last winter. Terry

I'm happy your forecast looks so good. Our forecast shows a much lower chance of rain for most days and some evenings---20 to 30%, but we're not hurting for rain nearly as much as you are so we're okay if none of that rain falls here this week. Our forecasts show the same major cool-down by the end of the week. Our temperatures are still overachieving--yesterday we were 5 degrees higher than forecast, but even if those higher-than-forecast temperatures keep occurring, the cool-down still will make us significantly cooler than we have been in a long time, other than on rainy days. I hope you get to keep that bounce in your step all week long. I think it is a terrible shame that the June rainfall let you down. Once you get the pond bottom fixed so it holds all the water it is meant to hold, maybe you'll have insurance, in the form of water, to ensure that never happens again. Even with insurance, these last couple of years have been awful for the farmers in many areas. I don't know how much longer they can keep hanging on. The ranchers are worse off because I don't think you can insure your hay pastures the way you can insure planted row crops. When I look at how few cows there are in the fields around us these last two summers compared to what we had even as recently as 5 to 10 years ago, the decrease is herd size is just huge. Dawn

Natal, IGoogle a personalized users page. I like the variety of different tools and news articles it offers. I can see my Gmail account on mine which is what I like most about it but I also have a weather spot, dictionary, local gas prices, a translator, an area code & zip look up tool and tv guide. Handy stuff! Here is a link that might be useful: Links for IGoogle